I can't leave well enough alone. The setup I now have is IsoCups (four) under the SACD player, Blu-Ray Player and Torii, three IsoCups under the ZDAC-1 with the ZBox on top of that on four "Baby Booties," and the CSP2 on three Tenderfeet. Sounds really good like this so I'm not touching it! (Yeah right!)

You have wetted my appetite. Can you describe the difference from changing over from tenderfeet to isocups on your components. And are you using the steel bases? I can imagine that it sounds quite good!

Well, it's hard to explain. . . and it's not a major difference. I find that there's a touch more dynamics and deep bass with the IsoCups in comparison to the Tenderfeet, it's just care has to be taken to seat the IsoCups properly so that the units don't move. I am using the bases.

We like different "sounds" so to be honest I think the sound with the Tenderfeet may be the best for your system.

Hmmm. Probably true, but I wonder... maybe we just need slightly different treatments to get a similar sound??? With room being purported to give 40% or so of the sound, who knows. I wish I could hear yours to find out! I know mine sounds amazing with a palpable, deep, rich, open, an almost magically real feeling presentation.

Well, mine sounds pretty darned good. I'm not sure I would explain it as "deep, rich, open, almost magically real" as I just really don't "feel" that type of language about audio any longer. It's a pretty good reproduction of what's on the recording. I'm always conscious I'm listening to a recording, but enjoying doing so. I'm pretty much "done" as far as equipment goes. Just settling into listening. When I get bored I tinker with trappings, but wish I wouldn't.

Yes the sound experience and systems are all so totally relative in descriptions, and also easily modified and refined by so many things. Kind of a pain really. It would be interesting for us to listen to some music we both love, a good recording, on a couple very good systems, and see what the descriptors would be. Is the difference in us, the systems, or both. Though relative again, I can say that with most of my recordings, I very rarely think of them as that. Though of course, I could hear them as that, I rarely do unless there are obvious artifacts from poor recording. In fact, I can comfortably say that my system enhances recordings to a substantial enough degree, especially with the ZSTAGE/TORII tonal balancing ability, that I am left for the most part with the pleasure of the music. But then, on reflection, I love sound so much, I wonder how much I listen to really sorry recordings anymore.

When I had to plug in my old NAD amp while Steve put bass knobs on my TORII, though I tried, I could not listen to music, only watching DVDs.

Well to me it's perhaps a more clearly delineated difference between recordings and live music as I have both happening in my living room. When I play an instrument or someone plays an instrument in my living room, it's radically different than the sound of a recording. So I always have that shift, and I'm daily aware of the differences in the same living space.

I can really enjoy recordings, but they're always recordings to me, and I've long given up the idea that a playback system can make something real. Still I'm listening to a Horowitz performance right now on cd (from the excellent Original Jacket Collection box) and that can't be accomplished in real time in my room for a number of reasons! I love my recordings, and cherish my time with them; the hours of enjoyment are central to my life. With the system as it is now I'm closest to just taking the playback as it is and enjoying the sound of the recordings as background to reading or surfing or as full-attention listening. (Or viewing as I also use this system for TV and DVD and Blu-Ray). That's my goal: to be setup and then. . . the setup forgotten.

What's your opinion of the IsoCups? I become more and more impressed with Steve Herbelin's products.

I'll mention this here as will and I have been talking about the ZBox like qualities of the ZStage and the ZBox. . . . I took the ZBox out of the main system again and put it into the second system. And once again I noticed that the treble is a bit more aggressive without it (but certainly good to listen to and probably "accurate") and there's a bit more dynamics, and the bass is less "thick" . . . I'm enjoying the system without it. Currently I have the CSP2 on three IsoCups and the ZDAC-1 on three tall Tenderfeet.

I love the Iso Cups' build quality. The combo of the steel base, cup, and black ball is impressive. I only wish there was a way to see them underneath my Taboo!

I am running the Taboo as a headphone-only amp, and all tubes have Herbie's Ultrasonic Rx tube dampers. So, my system itself generates very little acoustic energy. The components sit on a heavy nearly one inch thick slate table. Not much gets through this combination. Still, as opposed to the Tenderfeet that were previously under the Taboo, and now sit under the Mac mini, the sound seems to have more air around sustained piano notes and cymbals and a depth around bass that is better than before. Like triple-filtering water, as compared to double-filtering, it seems cleaner. Tapping on the Taboo while listening is weird. The amp is solidly built of course, but tapping produces no microphonics that I could hear. I asked a friend to listen with his back turned while I tapped on the base. He could not tell when I was doing so.